“You’re gay, what’s wrong with you that would fly with [insert airline] or travel to [insert destination]?” For example, I’m just wrapping up a trip to Saudi Arabia, where I flew Saudia and Riyadh Air, and obviously some people have some things to say about that. That’s totally fair — I write on the internet for a living, and people are entitled to their opinions.
I’m certainly not perfect, my opinions on some things evolve over time, and I don’t claim that my perspective should be your perspective. However, I’d like to explain how I think through my decisions of which airlines to fly, where to travel, etc., based on social policies (whether real or perceived).
Before I get into this, let me link to a couple of posts along somewhat similar lines that I’ve written in the past — here’s one about my take on the ethics of flying Middle Eastern airlines, and one about my philosophy on traveling as a gay, married couple.
I try to be objective in reviewing travel experiences
Look, I’m gay, I’m married, and I have two kids. I’d consider myself to be pretty “woke” (this guy who repeatedly threatened my life claimed I was the president of Antifa, just for context, but that’s a different story). Anyway…
I certainly have strong feelings about politics, and yes, sometimes I can’t help but write about some topics that border on being political. After all, on some level, travel is political, both on a micro and macro level. Political policy can impact our ability to travel, the rights we have in various places, etc. And politics can also impact us on a personal level, including how we view others. After all, we’re products of our environment.
Part of what I pride myself in doing here at OMAAT for 18+ years is reviewing airline and hotel experiences, regardless of how I personally feel about about the government of the place or product I’m reviewing. I share my take on the experience, and then others can draw their own conclusions about what they think, their willingness to have that experience, etc.
I do that for a variety of reasons:
- For one, I absolutely love airlines, and I very much enjoy seeing the difference in service and passenger experience, whether it’s American, Pakistan Airlines, TAAG Angola Airlines, or Turkmenistan Airlines; this stuff fascinates the heck out of me, and I try to come into these experiences with an open mind
- We all have different standards, have the need to travel to different places, etc.; speaking of my trip to Saudi Arabia, I have a surprising number of readers from Saudi Arabia, and I know they also enjoy hearing takes on their airlines
- Regardless of what people may perceive about the way that I travel, I very much enjoy visiting other countries, and in some cases, having my preconceived notions about the people changed
- I think people can draw their own conclusions as to how they feel about a government in a destination; just because I don’t say anything about a government doesn’t mean I don’t have opinions
Here’s what I find funny. For the most part, people don’t have issues with me traveling to questionable countries when it goes poorly, and I have a negative review. Like, when I basically got banned from Egypt for saying Cairo Airport sucks? Awesome, screw them… right?
Meanwhile when I flew Saudia a decade ago and had a terrible experience, many people were fine with that, and were almost gleeful. Now I flew the airline again, and I was amazed by how much they improved. Should I not acknowledge those improvements, and give them credit for investing in the passenger experience?
Folks, it’s not like I’m on anyone’s payroll here, and am saying “yeah, spend your last dime flying Saudia, it’s the greatest experience on planet earth.” I’m simply saying “wow, they really improved, good for them for putting in the effort.” It’s not a political statement. It’s just an honest reflection of my experience, and then everyone can do with that information what they’d like.
The airline industry is incredibly complex, and I know how much work has to go into building an amazing passenger experience. So when an airline is able to achieve such a turnaround, they deserve credit for that.
Let me be 100% clear — I’m not blind to the differences that exist. Like, it’s much easier to build an airline in a country when you have a lot of government funding, no unions, and lower labor costs. But even so, those conditions also applied when the airline sucked, so the improvements are worth calling out.
Some people are suggesting that I’m somehow biased toward Saudi Arabia, or that my content is sponsored. That’s simply not the case, and frankly, it amazes me that people can look at a greatly improved product, and somehow suggest that I’m making this stuff up.
What makes me sad is the lack of nuance in these debates
I’m going to regret even going into this, because people love to make straw man arguments on these topics. But it makes me a bit sad how people don’t seem to acknowledge any nuance when it comes to countries, their governments, and their people.
The first thing I feel strongly about is that there’s a difference between people and their government. You can feel one way about the government of a country, and another way about the people of a country (hey, that applies to the United States as well!).
For that matter, we can’t just let our preconceived notions about a country (probably based on government policies) dictate how we feel about the people of a country, and make us unwilling to engage. It’s almost like some people are convinced that because they have a bad impression of a country’s government, they assume that everyone from that country is just awful.
I had several illuminating interactions with Saudis during my 48 hours on the ground, but here’s the one that was a first for me — I just had a casual, fairly lengthy conversation with a woman in a niqab, in the Bujairi Terrace area. When you think of the preconceived notions that many Americans have about Saudi Arabia, that would sort of blow peoples’ minds. And that says nothing of the much more modern side of the country that I saw, which frankly, caught me off guard.
Let me give another example of how nuance is often missing in these interactions, and let me intentionally use a “tame” example. Even when I travel to the UAE, people will say “how could you travel somewhere where they stone people for being gay?” That’s… just not actually reflective of the reality.
That’s not at all to overlook the fact that I strongly disagree with a lot of governments (particularly non-secular ones), and I take a lot of issues with human rights violations in many places. But there’s a difference between criminalizing certain types of sexual activity and criminalizing “being gay.”
Some people suggested that me “being” in Saudi Arabia was “illegal.” That’s simply not the case. And again, I’m not saying this to defend any government, but instead, I’m happy to have real dialogues that reflect reality. Do I disagree with criminalizing same sex activity? Of course. Does that mean any gay person who visits a certain country is setting themself up to be killed? Absolutely not…
The truth is that if I limited my airline reviews to those from countries with public policies that I overwhelmingly agree with, you’d probably get nothing but reviews of Icelandair, Norwegian, Iberia, SAS, and Air New Zealand.
Again, I totally respect those who disagree with me, and who choose not to spend their tourist dollars in destinations with problematic laws. I don’t disagree with the sentiment, but I just try to separate my job — reviewing airline and hotel products as objectively as possible — from my own political beliefs.
And frankly, visiting many of these places has taught me a lot of things — not about the governments, but about the individual people, and how there are a lot more things that unite us than divide us.
Bottom line
Travel, laws, governments, morals, etc., are all complicated. I totally understand how and why many people are unwilling to travel to countries that have problematic laws, and I think that’s respectable.
Personally, I try to leave that out of my own review trips as much as possible, because I view my job as being to objectively review airlines in the best way that I can. Just because I’m willing to travel to most destinations doesn’t mean I don’t think about the problems certain places have, or that I don’t take issues with certain laws.
I also don’t think it’s necessary — or advisable, for that matter — for me to say “hey, this airline is great, but keep in mind [insert opinions about the government in a country with laws against types of speech].”
I appreciate those who can see where I’m coming from, whether you agree or disagree with me. And conversely, I respect those who strongly disagree with me as well. I just ask that we try to be constructive and reasonable with what we say, rather than just hurling out insults based on a false narrative.